Carl Pfeifer: 1929 - 2007

Matt Schudel, The Washington PostCHICAGO TRIBUNE

Carl Pfeifer, who resigned from the Catholic priesthood to marry the woman with whom he wrote a series of influential textbooks on Catholic education, died of Alzheimer's disease July 12 in Dubuque, Iowa.

He was 78 and had lived in Arlington County, Va., until last year.

In 1968, Mr. Pfeifer was a Jesuit priest working at Catholic University when he and a Franciscan nun published the first of a series of textbooks for elementary school students on Catholic education and catechism. The series, called "Life, Love, Joy," represented a dramatic change in the way Catholic schoolchildren learned about their faith.

Over the next 30 years, Mr. Pfeifer and Janaan Manternach revised their textbooks, wrote widely and traveled across the world to lead seminars on Catholic education. Their books and other classroom materials, published most recently under the title "This Is Our Faith," were used in Catholic schools in all 50 states. They replaced the old Baltimore catechism, a system of learning by rote, with a dynamic storytelling approach drawing on examples from everyday life.

After collaborating for 10 years, Manternach and Mr. Pfeifer felt a growing attraction that went beyond their shared work and faith. In their 40s, they went through the formal process of resigning from their religious orders. He had been a member of the Jesuits for 29 years; she had been a nun for 27.

Only then did they go on their first date. They had never so much as held hands before.

They married Nov. 20, 1976, at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Georgetown. Four priests officiated at the ceremony, and the 300 guests gave them a standing ovation, but their decision to marry was not warmly received by all. One priest wrote a letter branding their actions "evil."

With little money, the newly married couple settled in Arlington and returned to their mission of Catholic education. When the archbishop of Baltimore invited Mr. Pfeifer to speak at a conference on Catholic liturgy, they knew they had found official acceptance.